A variety of devices have been employed for attachment to the rear bumper of vehicles or to a conventional trailer hitch attached to such vehicles. A relatively large number of these devices are specifically for the transport of wheel chairs for use by handicapped persons when they reach their destination by travel in the vehicle. Three such wheel chair carriers are shown and described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,400,129, issued Aug. 23, 1983 to J. Eisenberg; U.S. Pat. No. 4,297,069, issued to B. C. Worthington on Oct. 27, 1981; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,213,729, issued on July 22, 1980 to C. W. Cowles, et al. The devices described in the first and third of these patents are designed to be attached to a conventional tongue of a vehicle trailer hitch. When it is desired, or is necessary, to remove the device from the vehicle, a threaded bolt that is passed through an aperture of the device and the aperture of the hitch must be removed. This requires the use of tools and for this reason, the carrier is seldom, if ever, removed. The device can then be placed in the vehicle trunk or another storage space. If it is to be used on another vehicle having an appropriate hitch unit, the bolt (again requiring tools) is then used for the fastening to that hitch. The device in the second of the references utilizes special fastening units to attach the device to the vehicle.
Each of these units has a provision for moving the carrying portion to either a "deployed" position where the wheel chair can be placed thereon and fastened, or to a "stored" position which is generally vertically oriented to minimize space. Various types of pivots, springs and locking pins are utilized to enable the movement between these two positions. Because of these pivot mechanisms, the devices extend several inches behind the vehicle trailer hitch even when the carrier is upright in the stored position. This projection produces a vunerable item when in contact with another vehicle, and the unit frequently drags the pavement when the vehicle is moving over a dip such as between a street and a driveway. A further problem occurs when a family with a handicapped person has more than one vehicle: either the person must be transported only in the vehicle having the wheel chair carrier, or all vehicles must be equipped with a carrier--an expensive solution.
Other known patents related to this general field are U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,800,967; 4,411,580; 4,301,953; 4,413,761; and 4,437,599. Of these, only the '580 and '953 patents involve a device for attaching to the tongue of a conventional trailer hitch.
Accordingly, it is a principle object of the present invention to provide a carrier for the releasable attachment to a vehicle which eliminates the need for multiple carriers when an owner wishes to utilize the carrier on more than one vehicle.
It is another object to provide a demountable carrier for a vehicle, with the major portion of the carrier removable without use of tools.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a carrier for vehicles which can be moved from a deployed position to a stored position, and which does not add any substantial length to the trailer hitch and therefore minimizes dragging during movement of the vehicle over uneven terrain.
It is also an object to provide a demountable carrier for trailer hitches which eliminates complex apparatus and thereby reduces the cost of fabrication of a carrier.
These and other objects of the present invention will become more apparent upon a consideration of the drawings and their description given herein.